Human rights

Al-Arabia – Iran promised on Friday to deal “decisively” with further protests over economic hardship, a day after security forces fired teargas to disperse demonstrators in the southwestern city of Behbahan. In a statement on Friday, the police urged people to “vigilantly refrain from any gathering that could provide a pretext for the counter-revolutionary movement”, accusing “enemies” of whipping up discontent. …

Radiofarda – In an exclusive interview with Radio Farda, the founder of anti-compulsory hijab and women’s rights activist, Masih Alinejad, has insisted that sentencing her brother to eight years prison in Iran, exerting pressure on her family, and other threats cannot silence her. Masih Alinejad who is in self-exile in New York is one of the most effective Iranian activists …

Al-Arabia – The United States is “troubled” by Iran’s sentencing of a young woman to flogging for her participation in a protest, a senior State Department official told Al Arabiya English on Thursday. Mary Mohammadi, 21, was condemned in April to 10 lashes and three months in prison, after being arrested during a demonstration against the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)’s downing …

Radiofarda – In a letter to Chief Justice Ebrahim Raeesi on Wednesday, nearly five hundred political activists living in Iran and in exile abroad have urged him to order the release of prisoners infected with the coronavirus, including the prominent human rights activist Narges Mohammadi. The letter signed by many prominent activists expresses concern about the spread of coronavirus in …

Iran-HRM – The state security forces fired tear gas to disperse protesters gathered in the southwestern city of Behbahan in the oil-rich Khuzestan Province. People came out to the streets on Thursday following days of social media protests against the impending death penalty for three young men who were arrested during the protests in November 2019. Videos from Behbahan show …

Iran Human Rights (IHR) – The unprecedented action of Iranian social media users in protesting the death sentence of three young men arrested at the nationwide November 2019 demonstrations in Iran, attracted support from international political figures and UN human rights experts. As execution rates in Iran continue to rise and the death sentences of three protesters arrested in the …

Reuters – Hospitals in Iran face acute shortages of medical personnel and beds as the country tackles a powerful second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, a senior official of Tehran’s anti-coronavirus task force said on Thursday. Iran, the Middle East country hardest hit by the pandemic, began relaxing its lockdown in mid-April. But a second wave of infections emerged in …

Radiofarda – A revolutionary court in Iran’s capital Tehran has sentenced the brother of an exiled anti-compulsory hijab activist to eight years in jail. The Islamic Republic intelligence agents arrested Masih Alinejad’s brother, Alireza, in Tehran in September last year, in what was labeled by rights groups and activists as a retaliatory measure against his sister who lives in the …

VOA – Iranian lawyers representing three men sentenced to death for involvement in antigovernment protests last November say they have asked the judiciary for a retrial of their clients, potentially averting executions that many Iranians and President Donald Trump fear are imminent. Defense lawyers Babak Paknia and Hosein Taj were quoted Wednesday by Iranian state media as saying they and a third attorney, Mostafa …

Amnesty – There has been an alarming escalation in use of the death penalty against protesters, dissidents and members of minority groups in Iran, Amnesty International said today, following the executions on 13 July of two Kurdish men in Urumieh prison in West Azerbaijan province. Diaku Rasoulzadeh and Saber Sheikh Abdollah had been convicted and sentenced to death in 2015 …